More on the beast: United Airlines

i've been posting regularly on united airlines, sparked by the pension default and also by my all-too-intimate knowledge of their sleazy inner workings... the soon-to-be-emasculated npr did a story on june 17th as part of their religion and ethics series... it's not nearly as hard-hitting or as investigative as it should or could be given how much privilege corporations already enjoy in the u.s., how much license they take with it, and how much human debris gets left in their wake... but, hey, we're talking msm here, right...? and we were expecting maybe, what...? in-depth journalism...? a little taste...

Dr. SCOTT PAETH (Professor of Religious Studies, DePaul University): The key ethical issue that the pension action raises, from my perspective, has to do with the question of whether or not there are any obligations that exist between employers and employees anymore, or whether utilitarian considerations of what a corporation considers to be in its best interest are the only things that matter.

JUDY VALENTE (NPR Reporter): United employees have already agreed to give up about $3 billion in wage concessions a year for the next five years. That's why many employees thought their pensions were safe.

CATHY SAMPSON (International Association of Machinists): We feel cheated by this. We feel these were promises that were made to us. They were deferred wages. We earned it, we deserve it. We always thought it was going to be there, and now when we need it the most, we find out none of this is true, that we're not going to get this.

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